THREE of Wiltshire’s eight spots where air quality is being monitored are in Salisbury, where traffic is causing pollution issues.

The city’s air quality problems were discussed during a meeting of Salisbury Area Board on Thursday.

John Carter, the head of Public Protection at Wiltshire Council, said overall air quality in the county was “very good” but there are a number of areas where it is “poor”. He said the issues relate to traffic.

The council monitor and assess air quality and look at exceedance levels, which are set by both European and UK legislation. When areas exceed these levels, air quality management areas are set up.

In Salisbury, the city centre, Wilton Road, including part of Devizes Road, and London Road are air quality management areas.

Mr Carter said: “Within Wiltshire, despite overall air quality being good we do have eight hot spots where air quality related to traffic does cause issues.

“What we are aiming to do in all our air quality work is work with Highways engineers who can look at traffic modelling and come up with solutions with regards to traffic.”

The team also works with local groups and area boards.

Richard Bolton, of the Cycle Opportunities Group Salisbury which is represented in the Salisbury Air Quality Management Group, said: “Salisbury is an attractive and popular place to live but there are a number of local issues and problems which contribute to poor air quality which we think need to be tackled as a community .

“Some pollutant levels are above current safe objectives and this is bad for our health.”

He said tall buildings trap air pollution which, combined with “intense congestion” at certain times and a lack of infrastructure for pedestrians on new developments, was contributing to the problem.

There were also issues with current pedestrian and cycle ways due to the narrow nature of the pavements and cycleways coming to an “abrupt end”, he said.

Mr Bolton also spoke about the lack of awareness of the benefit of trees and other vegetation to help regulate air quality.

Other issues brought up by members of the public during discussions included the need to improve traffic flow, the regularity of buses, and improvement of pedestrian areas as well as exploring other modes of transport like electric vehicles and bikes.